Ghana needs practical measures to slow down population growth – Dr Appiah

Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, Executive Director of the National Population Council (NPC), has called for effective and practical measures to help slow down the pace of population growth in the country.

She said the current population growth rate of 2.5 per cent was not only alarming, but also brought about a huge national economic burden and the decline of quality of life for the people.

Dr Appiah was speaking at a day’s workshop organized by the NPC for the students and staff of the Department of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.

The workshop, which was held under the theme: “Rapid population growth rate and the hidden socio-economic burden, the Ghanaian context”, was aimed at sensitizing the students on the effect of rapid population growth on the Ghanaian economy and measures to adapt to curb it.

Dr Appiah said there is the need for government to synchronize its policies to reflect on population growth.

“One problem of our country is that, government does not synchronize its policies and until that issue is addressed, we will still face problems of improving the standards of life as a nation” she said.

The NPC has over the years, attributed the reduction in services and income support for the poor; crowded educational and health facilities; declining educational and health standards and reduced productivity which is affecting the competitiveness of industries to the uncontrolled population growth rate in the country.

It said the growth rate for a country to progress is 2 per cent and the current growth rate of 2.5 per cent, means Ghana’s population will double in twenty-eight years, which is shorter that the useful lifespan of most of its natural resources.

The country is, therefore, on the path of a developmental deficit. Dr Appiah said only a decline in fertility rate and the implementation of organized family planning programmes would help reduce the rapid growth rate.